Cable clamp



M. BETHEA CABLE CLAMP July 26, 1960 Filed March 8, 1957 INVENTOR. Malcolm Be'l'hea.

A'+ 'forneys 2,946,108 CABLE CLAMP Malcolm Bethea, P.O. Box 1407,Birmingham, Ala. Filed Mar. 8, 1957, Ser. No. 644,888

1 Claim. (Cl. 24-135 This invention relates to a cable clamp and moreparticularly to that type of clamp known as a dead end clamp and has foran object the provision of a device of the character designated whichshall be simple of design, economical of manufacture, and one which maybe readily installed and worked with a minimum of inconvenience anddanger to the workmen, especially as applies to live line work.

My improved cable clamp, among other things, embodies the followingimproved features and advantages.

(a) The body of the clamp is inverted with respect to the groove withinwhich the cable is seated, with a keeper having a seat which bearsupwardly against the cable. This tends to eliminate the collection ofcorrosive matter in the cable groove as occurs in conventional clampswith upwardly opening grooves.

(b) The keeper is held in position by downwardly extending 'U-boltswhich straddle the clamp body and pass through ribs on the sides of thekeeper, the U-bolts being firmly peened to the clamp body, therebyfacilitating work on a live line and preventing any of the U-boltsgetting out of line when assembling or working the clamp.

(c) The relationship of the keeper and the groove in the body of theclamp is such that when the U-bolts are loosened to remove or insert acable in the clamp, the keeper does not drop completely free of thegroove and cannot hang on the sides of the groove when retightened.

(d) The keeper being located beneath the clamp body, drops away from theconductor groove of its own weight when the nuts on the U-bolts areloosened. This obviates the necessity of a lifting eye as heretoforeused on the clamps having a keeper above the body of the clamp.

(e) The seat of the cable in the keeper is of V-shape rather thanarcuate and is bowed slightly upwardly intermediate its ends whichproduces a concentration of pressure on the cable midway the ends of thekeeper and the V-shaped seat and causes collapsing of the cable helix atrelatively low bolt pressures thereby effecting greater pressure on thecentral strands of the cable.

(1) A cable guide formed with relatively light, bendable material, ismounted in the clamp body, between the sides thereof, which can be bentmanually before work is started so as to turn the cable either upwardlyor downwardly when being assembled.

(g) The clamp groove is made straight'rather than wavy as is usual inclamps of this kind and the keeper is slightly bowed at the ends whichconstruction, I have found, gives very high holding power and at thesame time makes it easy to thrust the cable through the clamp without atendency for it to hang on waves in the groove.

(h) Two pulling eyes are provided on the clamp body, one on each side,to simplify positioning of tensioning tackle when installing the clampand providing a means whereby the tensioning tackle may always beattached to the pulling eye nearest the pole where a lineman may belocated.

These and other features of my invention are illus-.

trated in the accompanying drawing, forming a part of.

Fig. 4 is a side view of the keeper, with the upward.

bow of the keeper slot exaggerated.

Referring now to the drawing for a better understanding of my inventionI show a clamp body 10 having an elongated downwardly opening, straightcable groove 11 therein which, as shown, is arcuate in cross sectionwith curved, and the U-bolts are curved with a corresponding radiuswhereby the latter bear evenly upon the upper surface of the clamp body.The clamp body is cast with upwardly extending fingers 19 which, whenthe clamp is assembled, are peened over as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 tohold the U-bolts firmly in place. i

The rear of the body 10 is open with sides 21 and 22 between which isformed a tongue or guide member 23 on a transverse partition 24 which issecured to side portions 21 and 22 at a position in longitudinalalignment with cable groove 11. The guide member 23 may be bent manuallyeither upwardly to deflect a cable 26 being inserted in the clampdownwardly as shown in Fig. 2, or downwardly to deflect cable 26upwardly. The rear end of the clamp is provided with a clevis 27 forattaching it to a stationary support such as 28, shown in Fig. 2 of thedrawing.

My improved clamp embodies a keeper member 29 having lateral ribs 25 and30 with holes 31 and 32 therethrough and through which the U-bolts 14,16 and 17 pass, the said holes being in alignment with the holes throughthe clamp body '10. The tightening nuts 33 and 34 on the U-bolts are onthe lower ends thereof, as shown. As will be seen the bolt 16 passesthrough the keeper midway between its ends. The keeper is pro vided withan elongated rib portion 36 which extends upwardly between the verticalsides 37 and 38 of the groove in the clamp body. The rib 36 is providedwith an upwardly bearing V-shaped cable seat 39 on the upper surface ofthe keeper member 29 which, when the clamp is tightened against a cable,causes a slight collapse of the outer strands of the cable and providesfor increased pressure between the center strands. As shown inexaggerated scale in Fig. 4 of the drawing, the mid-portion 41 of therib 36 is bowed slightly upwardly so as to afiord a concentration ofpressure in the clamp mid-way between its ends when tightened on acable. In actual practice, with a keeper five inches long the upward bowmay be in the neighborhood of A inch. This slight upward bow of thekeeper clamping surface, combined with the straight groove in the clampbody, gives very high holding power, yet when the keeper is loosened itis very easy to thrust the cable through the clamp without the tendencyto hang on waves in the groove.

As will be seen from a consideration of Fig. 3 of the drawing, the boltholes 12 and 13 in the clamp body and the bolt holes 31 and 32 in thekeeper body are so spaced from the cable groove that they do notintersect the groove nor come in contact with the cable. This providesfor ease in inserting the cable in the clamp.

Patented July- 26, 1 960 As shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, the clampbody 10 is provided with two pulling eyes 42 and 43 on the sides tosimplify positioning of tensioning tackle which, with this arrangement,permits attaching the tackle to the pulling eyeof the clamp nearest thepole where a line man is located.

f From the foregoing it will be apparent-that I have devised an improvedclamp which is, simple-and sturdyof design, easyto manufacture, andwhich-combines-maximum holding strengthwith 'ease of installation-andworking.

While I have shown my invention in but one form, it will beobvioustothose skilled in the art-that it is not so limited, but issusceptible'ofvarious'-changes and modifications 'without' departingfromthe spirit thereof, and I desire, therefore; that only such limitations,shall be placed thereupon as are specifically set-forth in the appendedclaim.

' What I claim is:

In a dead end cable clamp, an upper body member having at -one endportion a cable groove onthe under side thereof and having downwardlyextending bolt holes on opposite sides of the cable groove and laterallyspaced therefrom, laterally spaced vertical side portions on the otherend portion of the body member adjacent the groove, a cable guidemounted at one end between the side portions at a position in generallylongitudinal alignment with the cable groove, the other end of saidcable guide being free and extending toward the cable groove, said guidebeing, selectively, bent upwardly to be engaged by the upper surface ofa cable being inserted in the cable groove thereby to direct the cabledownwardly from the clamp or bent downwardly to be engaged by the lowersurface of the cable being inserted thereby to direct the cable upwardlyfrom the clamp, means at the outer end of the side portions to securethe body member to a stationary support, a keeper member mounted beneaththe body member and having bolt holes therethrough along its sidesaligned with the boltholes in the body member, 'U-bolts straddling thebody memberand extending downwardly through the aligned bolt holes, anupwardly extending rib on thekeeper memberxhaving acable seat on itsupper surface for engaging a cable in the cable groove, and nuts on-thelower ends ofthe U-bolts to draw the keeper seat into engagement withthe cable in the cable groove.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS166,082 Drinkhouse July 27, 1875 387,650 Lovejoy Aug. 14, 1888 851,822 rMeech Apr. 30, 1907 1,268,981 Lapp June 11, 1918 1,370,544 Leeper- Mar.8, 1921 1,579,005 Krout Mar. 30, 1926 1,994,003 Moore Mar. 12, 19352,432,635 Van Ryan Dec. 16, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS 126,047 Austria Dec.28, 1931 346,752 Great Britain Apr. 9, 1931 619,839 Great Britain Mar.15, 1949

